Speaking to talkSPORT, Stan Collymore has questioned whether Tottenham will want to move for Saido Berahino in January, having seen his attitude at West Brom in the months since the close of the summer transfer window.

The former striker said: “Mauricio Pochettino has just got rid of players who were causing trouble - [for example] Adebayor. Would he want Saido Berahino seeing his attitude since August?”

ESPN reported last week that Berahino is still Tottenham’s priority transfer target ahead of the January transfer window, with a desire to sign a striker who is young, English, with with undoubted quality.

Berahino does have a wealth of potential, and there is a sense that he is wasted at West Brom due to the style of football Tony Pulis has the Midlands team playing. He would suit playing for Spurs, with their style keeping the ball on the floor much more, and a January transfer seems to suit all parties involved.

However, the youngster has shown to have a poor attitude since the summer, with the Telegraph reporting on the controversial Twitter message Berahino sent following his failed move to Spurs on deadline day.

Openly criticising Baggies’ chairman Jeremy Peace, Berahino has since stood down over his stance to never play for the club, but this is hardly what Pochettino wants to bring to his Tottenham team.

He has spent the opening months of this campaign trying to solve the Emmanuel Adebayor conundrum, and ended up releasing him from his contract due to the striker’s attitude and unwillingness to simply be a back-up player.

Berahino has shown that he has some of the same mental traits as Adebayor, and it could be a risk for Spurs to sign him if he will not be happy to be a back-up to Harry Kane. Pochettino has spent long enough removing the bad characters from his team, so to bring a new disruptive figure in seems a strange decision for the Argentine boss.

Of course, Berahino could change his ways if he moved to Spurs, as he was only disruptive at West Brom to force through a move, but Pochettino should properly assess the striker’s merits before sanctioning his signing.

Billy Hawkins

Billy is a freelance writer who contributes to various sites concerning football. Known to possess an obsession with statistics, Eastern European club sides, and Victorian football, he focuses upon the untapped potential of the Football League in the belief it is more enjoyable than the Premier League.